Parents picketed at the Kathmandu Model School in Buddhanagar, Kathmandu against the increment of the school’s monthly fee even during the lockdown on Friday morning, October 16. 

The parents said that the school did not listen to their repeated requests to fix the fees of online classes stating that the school asked parents to be understanding that school should survive in the event of pandemic. The parents demanded that the annual fee cannot not be paid, separate fee for online education should be fixed and there should be a parent's representative in the school as they have increased the monthly fee by Rs.500 after the Covid-19 outbreak.

Shubha Prabhavat Ghimire, coordinator of the parents' association, said that the schools are charging fees as per their will as the government did not fix the fees for online education. He accused the government for creating conflict in the situation where most parents has lost their jobs and employment.

The government had given the responsibility of fixing fees for online education in privately funded institutional schools to the local level. Most of the local governments are not being able to fix the fee even though it was arranged to be implemented within the second half of September. Taking advantage of this, some schools have started setting their own fees. At the same time, disputes between parents and private school operators have increased in most of the schools